Babe wake up. New interview w Mikey just dropped - and it's a good one!!!
My heavily glazing reaction after the cut
Oh this was shot right before the European Summer Tour this year!
"These songs are embedded in my being" "Everything was still there" Shoutout to Mike @ Drumeo going like "I haven't played this since 2010 but okay okay, just for you, I'll give it a try" and playing extremely complicated bullshit from decades ago perfectly. LMAO. That's my boy!!!!! <3 <3 <3
This interview is STELLAR bc it's nice to see him give VERY specific drum nerd answers to questions. Also shoutout to the editing here. When he talks about The Dark Eternal Night being tough, it plays softly in the background. "Even though we haven't played that live YET we have rehearsed it" - DANCE OF ETERNITY SOON? 👀 Only kidding!!!
Fun to see their archive of Mike Portnoy stick ads. Some of them are pretty funny/dated (did they just pour yellow paint on my boy forreal??? was that... hard to get out??) and some of them are still very old school cool
SOOOOOO many people ask him about why he flips one of his sticks in the comments, and the reply is usually something like "sounds good on the snare". He gives a very well explained answer here "I like the power I get on the snare with the butt end, but I decided to flip my stick with the tip out so I can hear the tip on the cymbals"
I've tried many many sticks for many many hours at the guitar center, and Mike's are my favorite. Like #NotSponsored - and no one's paying me to say this - they just feel good to hold and to play. I didn't WANT to feel this way, cuz it's maybe a little embarrassing LMAO (do I WANT everyone to think I wanna be Just Like Mike when I grow up? PROBABLY NOT) but they just feel so good to play! It would probably be cooler if I was into some niche model, but that's just not how it works!!! You feel how you feel in life and you have to learn to say it with your full chest
I 99% thought the 420 name was tongue in cheek, but the pot reference wasn't even a thing back then?? There's no way LMAO. Also shhhh I lowkey haaaaaate the sticky finish on the 420Xs available at retail. Dear god how my hands would get kinda sticky
My friend takes a pocket knife to em to shave off the stickies and I felt like that was kinda extra LMAO... so I was stoked the new limmy edish ones don't have em! When he released those new sticks I was FIRST IN LINE
Tell me why it made me feel some kinda way to see that majesty symbol back on his signature :') And it's the hand drawn one he uses to sign stuff too 😍
I love it whenever he explains the two kit concept over again. "Can't decide between two good things, so did both, but somehow incorporated it into a secret third thing" is Peak Portnoy, and I love him for it!! (Also see: latest Transatlantic album <3 which I think may be my FAVORITE)
"Doesn't feel like playing drums" when you play with sticks that you're not used to is so real LOOOOL. Every time I show up to a jam sesh on someone else's kit I GOTTA bring my own sticks or it's surreal but like in a bad way. I'm such a "intuition as my primary mode of living" type guy, so if something is off it's OFF and I just can't get into it
"We're more of a team than ever before" makes me so happy to hear the guys say this every time. Also as someone who is a HUGE sucker for a studio documentary, just between you and me, I really really hope to see one soon. I absolutely love seeing the process of music being written, the ideas being thrown around, how people work to solve a puzzle of fitting things in so they sound good together, it's all so so magical and greater than the sum of the parts. Plus all the sweet moments of supporting each other and being silly together and goofing off with instruments, all of that is part of the magic
I completely understand DT not releasing one for this last album (it's so vulnerable!) but as a huge fan's fan, it would give me no greater pleasure than to see one for the next album now that they're more comfortable. But as always, no one is entitled to what is essentially private special moments from someone else's life, so it's not my place to push for it!!
PS: During the watching of this, the sticks arrived, and boy do they feel great :> NOT SPONSORED I GET NOTHING FROM SAYING THIS
